THE SECRET JUICE FOR PLAYING BETTER TENNIS

If you feel like your tennis is not going anywhere, but you practice super hard every day, here are my suggestions to get you out of your tennis slump. 

PUT THESE THINGS IN YOUR PRACTICE IMMEDIATELY!

Mental pressure...

Whatever you do during practice put pressure on yourself to do it as best you can. 

Take the warm-up as an example. It's easy to arrive at practice and begin your warm-up slightly unfocused. You've warmed up a thousand times before and you probably think you don't need to focus much anyway, you think the warm-up can be performed in automatic mode. 

But you're wrong.

By focusing more during the warm-up you are awakening your brain and preparing it to work at a higher level when you do start hitting balls.

It's also important to focus any time you're in the gym, because you'll get more benefits from a focused gym session than an unfocused one.

Another time to increase the mental pressure on yourself is when you're drilling or playing points. If you're working in drills don't be the one to make the mistake. It's fine if your practice partner makes the mistake, just don't let it be you.

Likewise, if you're playing points put pressure on yourself to win. 

By adding pressure to yourself during practice you're setting the bar higher mentally, and that higher standard will be reflected later in your matches.

Mirror the Match...

The secret to any great practice session is to mirror all those things that are present in a match, and introduce them into your practice.

Take time to jot down on a piece of paper all those things that you know to be present in a live match. Now take your list and put as many of those things you have written down into your practice session. This will change your tired practice sessions and make them  much more relevant and targeted to move your game forward

Stress is one of the match ingredients you should also have on your list. Stress is present in all the matches you play so let's get used to playing with it and becoming comfortable in a stressful environment

Rather than look at stress as the enemy,
see it as an integral part of competition
and learn to embrace it

The best way to add stress to your practice is to play lots of points. Don't play points thinking you're "practicing", that's the wrong mindset to adopt. Instead, pile the pressure on yourself by taking the points seriously. One of my favourite sayings to players involved in practice points is 

"You're not here to practice, you're here to win"

When you play lots of points in practice you'll be forced into making lots of decisions. Decision making is another common ingredient in match-play that you should have included on your list.

During points you'll have to decide on the best shot selection options under different circumstances. Lot's of decisions need to be made during a point so start getting comfortable making them.

I'm sure the biggest missing ingredient in your practice sessions now is unpredictability. 

There's a common misconception that a player will learn something faster if it's made easy for them first. I call this the "cotton wool" approach to teaching tennis.

I like to do the opposite. I take away all forms of "cotton wool" and expose the player to stress, decision making, and unpredictability from the beginning. 

If I want to teach a player to approach the net more, once I have explained how I want it done, I have them move forward to the net in a point situation and expose them to all the "ugly" things that could happen. 

As a player you will eventually be faced with all those things which can go wrong when going forward to the net. Don't delay, expose yourself to those unpredictable "ugly" elements right from the beginning.

Lastly, add some fatigue to your sessions to mirror live match-play.

Training to become a Green Berets in the US Army is one of the toughest challenges on the planet. Only the very best men and women from the US armed services can try-out for this elite squadron, and only a small percentage of those candidates pass through training. 

The Green Berets have a specific standard they demand when they train all new recruits. They train them to last for 5 days, and 5 nights behind enemy lines, and without food or water.

If you're getting bored with your training sessions and feel like you are not improving your results, then you need to include all the elements I've listed here.

To create a tennis equivalent to the Green Berets training regime, train yourself to play at your highest level for 5 sets (3-4 hours), against your toughest opponent, and all the while making correct decisions throughout. That should be your bench mark!

There's your challenge for the months ahead.

The US Army Green Berets' training is based on 
a "worst case" scenario. Perhaps your tennis
training should also